This is an interesting piece of news, and even sad in reflection. Rather than focus on the fact that this Confederate Soldier's widow lived to the incredible age of 97, I am drawn more to the story of who she was married to. Even though they were only briefly married during the twilight of his years, her connection to something that is now so far gone in our history, to me is thrilling. It was such a sad time for our country, with wounds that are probably still felt, especially in southern communities. It is a shame that a great majority of the war's stories die around us on a daily basis. Some oral histories, because of their obscurity and remoteness, are gone forever.

My Grandfather was a Cossack, part of the cavalry in the Czar's army before and during the Russian Revolution. This of course meant that he was on the losing side of that ordeal. His life's experiences were so rich, and I only wish that I was not so young, being the age of five years old, when he died. I would have loved to sit and listen to him speak. I remember him holding me and talking and singing to be, but that's pretty much it. One of my Uncles seems to know more stories about his life than does my mother, but if I don't sometime take the time to sit down and catalog those stories, they'll someday pass away forever. Oral histories are so valuable! I'm ashamed that I never begged my mother to teach me to speak, read, and write the Ukrainian language when I was younger. The dialect used by my family will also someday needlessly pass away. All I know are a handful of phrases that I was taught to say to make my Grandfather smile. Less talk and more action on my part is in order, so I must begin my endeavor to learn more about him soon.

In this picture, my Grandfather is on the left, his uncle in the middle, and his brother or cousin in the foreground on the right. The photo must have been taken sometime between 1912 and the Revolution, as he would have been in his twenties.



This is one of the few pictures that I have of me with my Grandfather. It was taken around 1975, with my Mother and Grandmother also in the shot.